Missed the Mark
by chipofmintchocolate
Summary: A Traught drabble series featuring the many ups and downs, arrows and flips, and heart-felt connections of Dick and Artemis' relationship. Drabble #5 - That Wasn't in the Script (set during "Darkest")
1. Empowered

**Disclaimer:** I own the computer I typed this drabble on. I do not own the places or people I wrote about.

**Note:** This takes place in the aftermath of "Homefront."

**Warning: **My writing style has changed and improved through the course of this drabble series, so the earlier chapters are not as good as the later ones.

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**Empowered  
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After the Red Tornado family scare, Robin approached Artemis and challenged her to a spar. Her immediate reaction: choking on her bottle of water, was a result of her shock and disbelief. Seriously, were all forms of liquid H2O plotting to kill her today? Her younger teammate remained unfazed, clapping her back sympathetically as she coughed and sputtered, but Artemis just didn't understand why _he_ was asking _her_.

She was by no means the best at hand-to-hand or the toughest fighter on the Team, and in the Cave, Robin had built himself a reputation of training alone or only fighting with the best.

In her moment of hesitation, he cleared his throat and asked, "Traught? Or not?"

Like a combination to a lock, his words settled into the crevices of her mind. And suddenly, she understood.

They sparred once a week at first. After the Team tracked down Red Tornado and destroyed T. O. Morrow's android, they started training together on a triweekly basis. The frequency of their spars increased until it got to the point that the first thing they would do when they Zeta-beamed into the Cave was make a beeline for the training room. If they didn't have an immediate assignment or team meeting to attend, they would spar for at least 45 minutes.

At the end of each furious bout of hand-to-hand combat, the Dark Knight's squire and his archer teammate would wear matching sheens of sweat and endorphin-charged grins. Wordlessly, the two would part to hit the showers and then returned to heroics as usual.

They were perfectly suited to be partners because they shared a common goal: to be extraordinary in a group of super-humans. To make up for their ordinariness with speed, agility, sagacity, and persistence.

They knew what it was like to be powerless.

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**A.N.** As always, review if you want more!


	2. Emotional Masking Tape

**Disclaimer:** I prefer NOT to be sued by the most powerful man in Gotham, so no, I do not own Bruce Wayne's adopted son Dick Grayson. Wish I did, but I don't.

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**Emotional Masking Tape**

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Domino masks were convenient devices at times. Dick Grayson was a particular fan of the costume piece, because it came in handy for all sorts of occasions:

1. Like when you were checking out the green-spandex butt of your teammate.

Or her "hotter-than-Jessica-Alba-in-her-prime" abs.

Or her grey eyes framed by curved, thickly-lashed lids.

Or her nervous chuckle as she sang a combination of nursery rhymes in her raspy voice, and the kids huddled around her laughed even though their world was falling apart.

...when she didn't think you were looking.

2. When you stared her straight in the face at school with your unforgettably blue eyes and hurriedly looked away, knowing she'd never make the connection between the creepy freshman dweeb who had once taken her picture and her teammate unless Dick Grayson got carelessly close to her.

3. When you were terrified out of your mind, and you couldn't show it. You needed to be her strength, even though you were just as scared as she was of your teammates dying, of drowning, of being helpless humans in a metahuman universe. You needed to pretend to be brave.

4. When you inherited your mother's tendency to express everything with her eyes, and a mask gives you the ability to hide it. Especially when your eyes say "I love you" and her eyes say "I love someone else."

5. When you are doing all of the above and her boyfriend, your best friend, is standing right next to you.

It's only at the last moment, when she's leaving on a mission you planned and moving out of your range of protection, that you forget the reason you wear your tiny mask.

She's getting on the Black Manta sub with Kaldur; she'll be gone for who knows how long, so of course she'd kiss her boyfriend!

What you hadn't banked on was your reaction.

As you watch, you start visualizing the moment when you gave her a shoddy imitation of CPR to make her death "convincing." Your chest stings with guilt and pain. Kaldur shifts his eyes just slightly, changing the angle of his vision to just above their heads to give them privacy, but you feel the need to physically turn your head away.

And you don't know why.

She doesn't notice. Kaldur does.

So much for subtlety.

6. When you say, "We're through the hard part—they're in," and your friend replies, "Are you kidding? It only gets more dangerous from here."

...and you know what he says is true in more ways than one.


	3. Corsage for the Entourage

**Disclaimer:** I did not invent prom.

**Note:** In this drabble, Artemis doesn't know Dick and Robin are the same person. This is staged before Batgirl joins the team and Dick becomes Nightwing.

**Characters:** Dick and Artemis (Traught, with a side of DickBabs)

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**Corsage for the Entourage**

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Dick liked to entertain the thought of asking Artemis to prom. He knew she'd say no, but what expression would be on her face when he popped the question?

Would she look at him with dispassionate pity or, if he was lucky, faint disappointment as she said, "Sorry, I have a boyfriend."

Would she blankly stare as if he were a perfect stranger, her twisted facial features saying loud and clear, 'Why is this junior talking to me?' or 'I don't know you. Why are you asking me to prom?'

If she had reacted that way, he probably would have laughed, only making her more confused.

But he never went through with it.

Babs ended up taking him to the dance (she always held the reins of their undefined relationship), and prom was as overrated as he expected it to be. However, the music was catchy and Gordon was a fantastic friend slash not-quite-girlfriend to have a good time with. They danced when they felt like it and had witty banter and punch when they didn't.

Batman had taught Robin to stay constantly informed so he would never be surprised in combat. A moment of shock or hesitation could mean a bullet to the throat.

He realized he had forgotten that piece of advice as he looked over Babs' shoulder and saw a certain redhead and his girlfriend walk onto the dance floor.

Dick hadn't been in the Cave last Monday when Artemis announced she needed a dress, since she was taking her boyfriend to prom. He wasn't as close to Bette as he used to be before she became buddy-buddy with Artemis, so he didn't hear her whisper about "Crock's out-of-town boyfriend" coming to the dance.

Wally had asked if Dick knew what a "button-ear" and "core-sage" were and where to rent a quality tux with a low price-tag, but Dick hadn't asked what Wally needed them for.

He hadn't even considered the possibility of his teammates coming. He'd assumed they'd go to Wally's prom, which was on the same weekend.

Correction: He had really, really hoped Wally and Artemis would go to Central City for prom.

Wally knew many thing about Dick, but one thing Dick hadn't mentioned was which school in Gotham he attended. Wally lived in Central City and didn't know Gotham Academy from Gotham High, so the information wasn't really necessary. As for telling Wally about Artemis being a GA girl, even if Dick had wanted to debrief his friend, in the beginning Artemis was supposed to be from Star City, not Gotham.

Although Artemis got around to telling Wally about her real location, Dick still didn't say anything. Sharing his old knowledge with Wally would have been half-admitting he had stalked his best friend's girlfriend and hadn't told him anything about what he had found.

Also, if Wally knew Dick was at Gotham Academy, then Artemis would eventually figure out who Dick Grayson really was. He wanted her to discover his identity when the time was right, when they could laugh and cry about the irony, not when Kid Mouth decided to blurt out the information.

Dick would later wonder to himself what had driven him to hide so many things from his closest friends. But at the moment, his mind was distracted by other things.

Artemis Crock strode in with her backless silver silk dress and her golden hair tied in this intricate pattern of braids, leaving her long neck exposed, and Dick dropped his punch glass on Gordon's foot.

The shattering sound was just loud enough to be heard over the pounding music. Dick ducked down to pick up the pieces of broken glass and hide his face in case his teammates were looking his way.

All he could think as he apologized over and over again to Babs and cut his fingers on the glass shards was that Gotham Academy should consider acting like a normal school and use plastic cups instead of glass.

After all, glass things were so easy to break and impossible to fix.

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A.N. Arg, I need to work on producing something _besides_ one-sided angst! A lot of people requested some mutual romance, and I'm still working on that. Trying to write Dick and Arty in character makes it really hard to think of a romantic scenario that wouldn't be OOC.

Y'all have any prompts in mind that could help me out?


	4. A Clue for You

**Disclaimer:** The Haly International Traveling Circus is the sole property of Jack Haly. Artemis and Dick, for the most part, own themselves.

**Note:** Set before and during "Performance." Inspired by suchadramaqueen16's one word prompt, "Clue."

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**A Clue for You**

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When Artemis received the mission briefing, the red and white circus uniform, and the mask that came with it, she wondered. _How was Robin going to get out of showing his eyes this time?_

He always found a way to cover them, whether through inappropriate shades indoors and in the dead of night or elaborate disguises that required covered eyes. He had once been a mime, a blind man with a dog named "Ace," and a "living statue" on the streets of New York.

For the last costume, he had covered himself in gold clothing, painted his skin and hair in gold paint, and wore round gold sunglasses to complete the gilded look. Wally had sold hot dogs, and she had the privilege of sitting on a park bench and pretending to be a businesswoman with a blackberry glued her ear.

That had been a particularly interesting recon mission. Despite her discomfort as she donned her circus clothing (dang, the tights rode up like crazy!), Artemis smirked at the memory.

Wally had gotten distracted eating hot dogs, and when their target, a nuclear physicist suspected of working for the League of Shadows, approached, Artemis had been the one to successfully follow and track the scientist down to the new headquarters of the Shadows' science division.

Robin had found a bathroom and cleaned the hair-dye and face-paint off in a surprisingly quick amount of time (5 minutes to be exact), but he hadn't been fast enough. Wally and the Boy Wonder had arrived on the scene ten minutes after Artemis had done their job for them.

"Guys," she had said wearily, "please don't leave me hanging like that again, okay?"

"I waa payin atten'ion," Wally mumbled around a bite of his sixteenth hotdog.

Robin, gold sunglasses still on his face, raised a skeptical eyebrow towards his speedster friend. "Sure you were. Paying attention to your bottomless _stomach_."

"You're in no place to talk, drama queen," Artemis said. "Removing your face paint took as much time as Wally finishing his last three hotdogs."

He muttered something indeterminable, and Artemis stifled a giggle in response.

At first glance, Robin had done a fine job of removing the mess from his hair, but Artemis' sharp eyes missed nothing. Flecks of gold paint still patterned his pale skin and hung in clumps in his hair.

"By the way, you got some gold paint there, there, there, there, and…" She plucked some paint from under his eyelid right near the rim of his sunglasses, trying and failing to get a glimpse of his eye color. "…there."

He bodily flinched, backing away a foot to rub the spots she had indicated himself.

He never let any of them get close enough, never lowered his guard once or let his sunglasses slide down his nose (which resulted in a habit of pushing his sunglasses back into place in a very geeky fashion that Artemis found slightly cute). Artemis strongly suspected Robin even slept with his mask on when he spent the night at the Cave. Like his utility belt, the emotional and physical covering of his eyes never left his body.

Letting her mind wander back to the present, Artemis' focus moved from their upcoming try-out performance for the circus, to M'gann chatting with Robin about timing their part of the act just right, to the mask hanging by its elastic band in Artemis' fingers.

Everyone was fully dressed except for their eye-gear. Robin still had on his traditional domino mask, and as he played with the circus mask in his hands, Artemis could almost believe he was thinking along the same lines as she was. His mask was just like everyone elses, with holes that gaped through the sturdy, decorated material of the eye-piece.

Would he do it? Would he trust them enough to lay bare the one physical attribute he had hidden so long? They had seen the scars on his back, the lean muscles of his too-developed pubescent body. Everything but his eyes, the so-called "windows to the soul."

She knew Robin; he could have altered the costumes beforehand. Through some underhanded sneaky twist of his wrist, he could have made an excuse to Batman for reasons why they should all cover their eyes. However, he hadn't. As a result, she kind of already knew the answer to the questions pouring through her head.

He already did trust them enough. Although the other Team members might not have realized that yet, Artemis knew the signs of a secret keeper deciding to invest faith in others, because she had plenty of things to hide herself. She could relate to Robin and his stubborn sunglasses better than the others could.

Lost in their thoughts, the Robin and the archer had been left behind by the rest of the Team. Without really thinking about it, the two of them donned their masks in tandem, Robin taking a moment to peel off his first mask before strapping the second in place.

They looked up, and for the first time, Artemis saw the whites of his eyes, and then…

Her vision was flooded with blue. Bright blue ringed with a thin circlet of navy, speckled with flecks of diluted white, and centered with a black pupil that expanded just a moment when he looked at her.

She felt as if she should know that bright color from somewhere, as if his white and red mask served as a frame of a picture that should have told her something.

All the puzzle pieces were there in front of her. Her mind just couldn't put them together properly before Robin turned his face away and moved to push aside the tent flap for the two of them.

"Come on, 'Mis." He grinned, not towards her but in the direction of the bright lights hanging from the tent canopy.

"The show must go on."


	5. That Wasn't in the Script

**Characters:** Dick, Artemis (Traught)

**POV:** Dick

**Summary:** Normal people don't smile when they are beaten to a pulp. But when has fate allowed Dick's feelings for Artemis to be "normal?"

**Note:** Set during "Darkest."

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The impact of Tigress' booted foot crushing into his cheekbone was stunning. Dick's eyes widened and his mouth filled with blood as he spun around like a demented ballerina.

They had practiced this before, but his footing was unsteady and unsure when Artemis kicked his feet out from under him, and he toppled like a rotting tree. It felt all too real, and fuck, it _hurt_ to fall on his back against the hard Cave floor.

Like a puma, she was on her prey in an instant, holding him in place between her thighs, pinning his elbows down with her knees. Dick didn't bruise easily, but he knew he'd have welts all over his body come morning. Her smooth fingers trapped his neck in a metal collar, and the two friends worked through their scripted lines ("No super powers for your collar to turn off." and whatnot).

Then he snaked his legs around her body, enclosing her in a constrictor embrace. His calf grazed her armor-padded breast.

The movements were almost mechanical, almost scripted.

Nearly.

They were professionals, Dick reminded himself as Artemis' olive eyes widened. She was doing this because it was her job. A job he had given her, even as he forced her head down to the cement floor with a crack and thanked God for her thick skull.

As for Dick's motives? He stood to his feet, a look of triumph on his face even as Artemis moved to activate the collar's electrocution setting.

He wasn't sure. The lines between mission and life had blurred. All he knew was that in this moment, Artemis was here. She was with him now, and that was all that mattered.

As electricity coursed through him, his knees wobbled and gave way. The room grew dark, and he considered with bitterness that in any other time or moment or condition, Artemis would have never gotten this close to him. She would be with Wally. Her ass wouldn't have slid down Dick's stomach. His legs wouldn't have tangled around her body.

And as strange and twisted as it seemed, as the light faded and pain seared like white lightning, Dick was smiling like the world was at its best right here.

Right now.

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**A.N.** Leave a review if you liked it, if you didn't, even if you didn't know how you felt about it. I want all the feedback you can toss at me! It helps me improve my writing. :)


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